


World's Apart

by CaptainXcamino



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Force Bond (Star Wars), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:55:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22302208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainXcamino/pseuds/CaptainXcamino
Summary: Many come to pay their respects after the passing of a loved one, but some visitors aren't what we expected.A reoccurring dream of a mysterious visitor haunts Poe after the war, but the force brings those to us when we need them most and paths destined to cross will always come together, even from across the stars.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux
Comments: 10
Kudos: 46





	World's Apart

**Author's Note:**

> A short epilogue to Sanctuary

The summer air on Yavin IV was hot; Thick like soup as it clung to the skin of the occupants of the tropical moon. The season usually spent by a certain child of the oddly orbiting rock running from tree to tree, at play among the groves of fruit that grew abundantly just East of the Dameron homestead. Droplets beading just below a mop of curls, collecting in the hot sun that lit the long days when the gas giant cast its shadow the least, not yet heavy enough to fall from their perch above brown brows. Soaking tiny ringlets as they bounced against a giggling face, clinging there without care. 

Toy ships were always hoisted as high as short limbs could reach, gripped in small palms that guided them soaring through imaged star systems. A grin of missing teeth ceasing its smile only to perform mocked sounds of star fighter engines and cannon fire. The game ending only when clouds rolled in with summer showers or home cooked meals and flustered mothers forced children indoors.

That was then. A past the boy currently longed for through sobs and running nose. This summer was nothing ordinary. It was unseasonably cold, with fruitless clouds covering what was normally a vibrant blue sky. A world normally so full of color and light drained to lifeless gray. Still and quiet, the unnerving calm before the storm in which the only sounds were the boy's own anguished whines.

There was no sweat on a young brow today, but round cheeks still remained soaked. Brown eyes and sopping wet lashes hidden behind coiled sleeves that clutched scraped knees to a heaving chest. A low breeze chilling the already cold boy’s tears as a groan of distant thunder rolled through the treetops. Body tucked close to the trunk of a tree he'd spent playing under every other summer he could remember. Now, the inconsolable child just wept beneath it, the shimmering leaves his mother had planted four years before barely making a sound as the storm grew closer. 

The earthy scent of its young foliage hung in the moist air, a familiar smell that he remembered often lingering in his mother's hair. The thick curls tickling his nose each night before bed when she’d lean in to kiss his forehead. A sensation the boy had already spent his first night without. The reality that he would never feel it again quickly settling in as his tiny limbs trembled. A truth that burned in his chest and churned his stomach in a mix of anger and sadness, pushing more tears from his eyes as another distant rumble reached his ears before fading into silence-

-A silence so deafening that it was in and of itself as cold and dark as the clouds above.

“Stop your crying.”

The sudden sound caused the boy to jump, brown eyes fraught and struggling to focus on the figure in front of him.

“Yes, boy. You.” A tall boy snapped, looking down on the frightened child with a blank expression, “If the Sergeant catches you crying, you’ll regret it.”

He was pale, with speckled skin and light green eyes that peered out from hair the color of the sky at sunset. A color he’d never seen on any human before and that caused the child to take pause. The mysterious boy couldn’t have been more than a couple years older than he was, but his face was already a little sharper, a little less round at the edges. His cheeks were just slightly sunken in, as though it had been a few days since his last meal, and his body was as thin as a rail and only grew thinner when he drew his hands behind his back. The solemn boy watching in disbelief as the uncomfortably stoic new face once again demanded he cease his crying.

"Be quit!"

“My mother died!” His voice broke, but there was a sharp, unmistakable anger in it. Burning streams returning to his eyes.

“All our mothers are dead, you fool.” The taller boy responded flatly, as if it was nothing to be so distraught about, “You will be too if Sergeant hears your blubbering.”

This coldness only seemed to make the younger boy more upset. Tan limbs quivering as they pulled the boy into A tighter ball. A reaction that twisted the redhead’s expression into what must have been his best idea of confusion before he dropped to his knee in front of the other child. 

“Didn’t you hear me?” The elder boy asked, his purposefully softened tone still laced with a hint of annoyance. The younger simply nodding and wiping his nose on a sleeve. An act that got him a disgusted look from the older boy.

“I don’t care what some Sergeant is gonna do,” The curly haired child insisted, “I want my mom!”

A pause came from the ginger child. A pale hand slipping from its position beside him to wipe a damp tan cheek. The younger boy jumping at the sudden sensation of touch. Dark eyes shooting up to look at the pale boy in front of him. A sad smile since having been stretched across the redhead's chapped lips.

“Don’t cry,” This time the demand was softer, a sincere tone at the end of its cadence, “I miss my mother too.”

“Did she die?” The boy sniffled, wiping the other side of his face before the older boy could.

“Yes. When my homeworld was attacked.”

“I’m sorry.”

The youngest sat up a bit as the elder sat down. Calm green eyes watching the child before him as he gathered his emotions. Nostrils flaring as he took a deep breath. The Yavinese child keeping strange focus on him, glancing over his gray cadets uniform before finally speaking, “...Do you miss her?” 

The question shook the young soldier, but he nodded slowly, “She used to sneak me sweets from the kitchen when my father wasn’t around.”

The younger boy smiled, a weak smile spreading to the older boy as well.

“I bet she was pretty like you.” The tan child said with a small laugh, the redhead’s face igniting in embarrassment before playfully shoving the younger boy.

“Don’t tease a superior officer, you nitwit. Rax will have your hide.” The elder warned, the younger still giggling.

“What’s a Rax?”

“Don't be stupid, he’s our Serge-”

  
  


“Poe?”

The explanation was cut short, a voice calling from the home behind the redheaded boy. The younger standing up to see his father calling from the front door.

“The rain is coming. You need to come home.”

“Okay, dad.” He stepped past the older boy, “Can my friend come to dinner? He looks hungry.”

Kes stepped down from the home’s porch, looking both ways across the yard before looking back at his son, “What friend, pal?”

Poe looked at his father in confusion before turning around, “He’s right-” 

He stopped, seeing the ginger had vanished. Poe crouching down to place a hand on the patch of grass where the boy had been seated, all that was left in his place some scattered sand and the faint trace of body heat. A few raindrops starting to sparsely fall from the crawling cloud cover. 

“This isn’t funny, Poe," Kes checked both ways across the yard again, lifting a hand to cover the hair that had begun to raise on the back of his neck, "Come inside.”

“Yes, dad…”

* * *

  
  
  


Chocolate eyes shot open to a dark room, a cold sweat breaking out over Poe’s whole body. A wide hand running through dampened curls as the pilot tried to calm his breathing. Eyes darting around the room, assuring himself that he was back in his bed and it was all just a dream.

He sighed, slipping from under the sheets to walk towards the kitchen. Shuffling out what was needed to make himself a cup of coffee before leaning against the counter, eyes falling on a sleeping BB unit dosing happily on his port. It had to have been the third time that week he’d had the same dream - a memory from his youth. A strange occurrence he'd never quite been able to explain, and one he’d forgotten about before returning to Yavin IV and his childhood home in the colony. 

His eyes left the coffee pot for a moment as the glow of the tree he’d had the experience under caught his eye. Losing himself in his thoughts for a moment before the pot started to steam. He'd played in its branches most of his life. Climbing the flourishing plant as it took root and grew rapidly in the moon's rich soil, or napping carelessly in its shade. Though the possible implications of such had never crossed his mind until now, he'd been told long ago that the tree was force sensitive and he supposed perhaps that had something to do with his recurring dreams. Leia had informed him once that the force resided in all things, after all. Maybe the force in him was being affected by the tree.

It had hardly been the only occurrence either, and the longer he dared to think, the more fragments of memories came to the surface. His mysterious friend visiting him in his room late at night, or in the groves while he worked. Sneaking him food from the kitchen or slipping him a koyo behind his father's back, who only ever seemed to be concerned about Poe spending so much time with him because he couldn't see him himself, or at least never did. Each visit always ended the same way, with Poe becoming distracted and his ginger friend disappearing while he wasn't looking. Always leaving only the slightest trace he was ever there at all. Sand, a drink cup, boot polish, or just the warmth of where he sat that faded almost as quickly as he did himself, leaving Poe to wonder when or if he'd return.

“Something troubling you, love?”

The accented voice hardly startled him. He was sure that he’d woke the man when he got out of bed. Though he looked like he was still sleeping, really. Tired eyes staring from the doorway. Black robe hanging neatly at slight shoulders and tied properly at a thin waist. The faint man practically begging him to return to bed without having to speak a word. An authority Hux had about him that amused the pilot.

“I was just thinking about how much of a jerk you were the first time we met.” Poe replied, a smirk sliding over his rough features as he playfully refused the former General's unspoken command.

“Really, Pilot?” He sneered, placing a hand on his hip, “How many times do I have to apologize for letting Ren interrogate you? I didn’t exactly have an option.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe laughed, taking a sip of his coffee while looking at the lively glow from the yard. Armitage clearly had no idea what he meant, “Bet you would have let Rax beat me up too.”

"What?" Orange brows furrowed. What nonsense was the fly-boy on about?

"It's nothing, Hugs-"

  
  


“I would Never.”

Poe looked back at the pale man, “...Armie?”

A familiar softness came from Armitage’s eyes. Green pools, the same eyes from the dream, accented by fiery red hair that fell into his face when unstyled. It was strange how the 'most fearsome General of the First Order' could be so endearing. With just a look, Armitage Hux could chase all his doubts away. Like every ounce of kindness and goodwill were bottled up on those teal ponds, shimmering and sweet. A fact that had remained unchanged about the man since they were children. 

It was something Rax had been unable to strip from him then, or Brendol. Even Snoke was unable to break the child soldier down far enough to snuff out that light within. He had overcome them all and now he was free. That light belonged solely to him. And Poe had found his own place in those eyes, watching the man grow beyond the shackles of the Empire and join him in a new future without limitation. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was exactly where he was supposed to be. Nothing was pulling him towards the stars and the ground beneath his feet felt solid.

Even if just for a short time, the Galaxy was at peace and it was all thanks to the actions of Armitage Hux. He had achieved his dream, a fact the medals displayed proudly on the walls of their colony home confirmed. Unbridled pride swelling Poe's chest as he set his cup aside to move towards the taller male. Bronzed fingertips tracing their way across blazing tresses as they lead the General's jaw towards his own. A soft kiss deepening as pale lips parted to nip at the bitter taste lingering at Poe's. A flutter of strawberry lashes grazing the bridge of his nose before Hux parted their kiss.

“Come back to bed.” he purred, draping thin arms around strong shoulders.

  
  


“Only because you're the man of my dreams." He winked.

Armitage rolled his eyes, "Don't push it, Dameron."

"OK, fine," He laughed, "You're a dream come true."

  
  
  



End file.
